Educational Resources Available to Parents Working From Home

The coronavirus
(COVID-19) outbreak has led to many unprecedented precautions being taken by
people all over the country. During this trying time, schools are temporarily
closed, and several businesses are encouraging their employees to practice social
distancing. If you’re a parent, this likely means that you’re working from home
while the little ones are home from school.

How on Earth are
you supposed to remain productive with work
and be sure your kids’ weeks off of school are moving them forward with
their schoolwork? Well, the good news is you’re not alone! Avoid a pre-summertime
slump with some helpful resources and a plan!

You may have seen
several posts on Facebook, recommended sites from teachers, and all sorts of e-mails
about the resources that are now available for your kids.

Let’s take a look
at the educational resources for kids available to you while you’re working
from home:

Khan
Academy is a great place to start for sample daily schedules, learning
resources, and outside links to accompanying materials. It’s very
education-forward and doesn’t come with as many bells and whistles as some
other sites. With textbook-style handouts, this might be the easiest transition
for students looking for more of a classroom home study.

Chances
are good that your child will have a login for Zearn. If not, email their
teacher and see if they can provide you with a login. When they sign in, they
will have different math quizzes and games to complete to progress in their
lessons.

Under the parent resources section, there are webinars that you can view that help explain the different modules. This one is so fun, your kids will not even realize they’re learning!

Great Minds is the hub for Eureka math and science. Under “Access Free Resources,” you can view workbooks, teacher instructions, games, and parent tip sheets broken up by each topic. There are also some helpful videos on there in case you need a bit more explanation. You might have to teach yourself before you can explain to your student!

BrainPOP breaks down subjects like science, social studies, English, and math, while incorporating engineering and tech topics into videos, quizzes, games, and worksheets. While BrainPOP is usually a subscription-based site, you can sign up for a free membership right now due to school closures. This site has so much content that your child can stay on it for hours completing relevant courses for all subjects they’re studying in school.

If
your kids need a little wind-down, check out Cosmic Kids Yoga’s YouTube
channel. The instructor, Jaime, goes through different poses in fun and
creative sets that help keep bodies active, and builds on self-awareness.

Classic Reload has the ‘90s favorite we played in school! My oldest daughter plays Oregon Trail in her social studies class sometimes, so when she mentioned her teacher had a link on Google Classroom, I just had to take a trip down memory lane myself.

Set
your kiddos up with their own page on your Netflix account, assuming you have
one. I would recommend adding the Magic School Bus series and BBC
Earth to start. Netflix also has a few original movies about the planet,
birds, and the Mars exploration.

My
kids have been loving this! While it’s not free, it’s worth the money in our
current state of isolation. Sure, Disney has a bunch of movies and shows
available, but it also has a National Geographic section that is a learning
goldmine!

My
daughters have been watching a documentary and then writing a brief report
about each film. So far, we’ve watched Expedition Amelia, Drain the
Titanic, and Hostile Planet: The Polar. Get a free, seven-day trial,
and memberships are $6.99/month after that.

Put together a puzzle or five! Order online if you don’t have one handy.

A
lot of this revolves around screentime, so be sure to break it up with some old
fashioned outdoors play (maybe while you’re on a conference call for work),
have the littles help with lunch or dinner, and take this time to purge the
house!

Only child and mother of two girls. Holiday freak that loves to plan a party, especially with a theme! I take entirely too many pictures, mostly of my kids. I am always up for a Hallmark Christmas movie marathon and a quick trip somewhere.